A Nonstop Love of Oceanside Sports…

Happy Valentine’s Day. If you love sports, you are in the right place.

Boys’ Basketball

The opening tip-off might have been the prettiest part of first quarter basketball action between the Oceanside Pirates and host El Camino Wildcats the last week of January. Before a loud, full gym, the teams played the first quarter as though the baskets had lids on them. Leading 10-8 after the first quarter, Oceanside outscored El Camino 20-6 in the second quarter to take a 30-14 halftime lead.

The Wildcats never let up. El Camino cut the lead in the third quarter and pulled to within 2 points in the closing minutes of the game. But Oceanside held on for a hard fought 61-53 win. Junior Philip Johnson led the Pirates with 17 points and Senior Jonah Harris added 16 points and 8 rebounds.

Oceanside (14-9) and El Camino (13-11) meet in their last regular season game February 17 at 7:00 p.m. at the Wally Molifua Gymnasium on Oceanside’s campus.

The same night the Pirate soccer team defeated El Camino 1-0 behind a goal from Senior Donovan Wilson. Wilson is the Pirate’s leading goal scorer with 13 goals this season. Coach Frank Zimmerman’s Pirates are 14-2-5 and 7-1 in Avocado East Soccer league play. The Pirates can clinch the league championship with a win Wednesday at home against San Marcos.

Sophomore Abel Cervantes and Senior Jonathon Fonseca are the leading scorers for the Wildcats. The Pirates and Wildcats meet again at Oceanside High on Friday February 17 at 5:30 p.m.

Baseball is Back

While winter sports are in full swing at local high schools, major league pitchers and catchers report this week. Sure football, basketball and hockey are fun winter fillers, but baseball is back. All is right with the sports world.

This is especially true now that baseball is the only major professional sport in San Diego.

The Padres are likely expected to keep the rest of the National League West ahead of them. This is, assuming Bud Black can do with the Colorado Rockies, what he did with the Padres.

At least the style of the other teams in the NL West should be no surprise to Padre fans. Former Padre managers or coaches lead the NL West teams – Bruce Bochy with the Giants, Black with the Rockies and Dave Roberts with Dodgers.

The Padres have put together what looks like a very talented group of future stars. Led by Wil Myers, the Padres face of the 2016 All Star Game, the youth movement includes Yangervis Solarte, outfielders Alex Dickerson from Poway, Travis Jankowski and Hunter Renfroe and infielder Ryan Schimpf. The everyday players look ready. The pitchers, however, look to be 2 years from prime time. It still should be a fun and exciting team to watch.